Savr
A connected cooking ecosystem, mobile app, kitchen monitor, and smart appliance integration designed to reduce friction, prevent food waste, and make home cooking more confident and enjoyable.
Role: UX/UI Designer
Tools: Figma
Course: IXD 412, University of Kansas, 2025
Design a small ecosystem of two connected physical devices and a mobile app that controls the overall product function. The project required multi-device user journey mapping, context-aware UI design, data visualization, and integration of customer feedback. I chose Smart Kitchen & Cooking Assistance as my topic.
The Problem
Home cooking is full of friction, people don't know what to make with what they have, forget to check ingredients, lose track of timers across multiple dishes, and waste food because they can't keep up with expiry dates. Existing solutions (recipe apps, smart displays, smart appliances) exist in silos. Savr connects them.
User Research
User persona built around a busy home cook who wants to eat well but struggles with planning, execution, and waste. Goals: find recipes that match what's already in the fridge, get guided step-by-step without touching a phone with messy hands, track multiple dishes simultaneously. Frustrations: too many tabs open, forgetting one dish while focused on another, buying ingredients they already have.
The System
Savr is a three-part ecosystem: a mobile app for recipe discovery, grocery management, and remote monitoring; a kitchen monitor (a countertop display) for hands-free cooking guidance and real-time appliance feedback; and appliance integration that reads temperature, time, and status directly into the system. The devices are connected at all times and adapt to context, early morning surfaces quick breakfast recipes, and a near-empty fridge triggers smart shopping suggestions.
Key Design Decisions
Content-aware states adapt the UI based on context. If the user is mid-recipe, the app surfaces the relevant step; if they log in for the first time of the day, it shows meal suggestions. Data reporting screens give users insight into their cooking patterns, food waste, and calorie tracking, making the app valuable even when they're not actively cooking. The kitchen monitor prioritizes glance-ability, large type, clear progress indicators, and minimal interaction required since the user's hands are occupied.
Key Features Designed
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Fridge live view so you can check contents remotely while grocery shopping
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Ingredient scanning and logging that auto-populates your pantry in the app
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Recipe recommendations based on what you actually have, not what a generic algorithm suggests
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Cutting board weight sensor gives precise measurements without separate kitchen scales
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Nutritional breakdown per ingredient and per full recipe as you cook
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Step-by-step guided cooking mode on the cutting board display
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Voice control on the cutting board, completely hands-free when your hands are messy or occupied
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Cross-device handoff, start a recipe on your phone, continue on the cutting board
The Full Design
A connected ecosystem across mobile app and smart cutting board, from ingredient scanning to step-by-step guided cooking.
Reflection
Savr pushed me to think beyond a single screen for the first time, designing for multiple devices means every interaction has to account for context, state, and handoff between surfaces. The biggest challenge was deciding what information lives where: the phone vs. the kitchen monitor vs. the appliance itself. I'd push further by prototyping the physical device interactions more concretely and testing with actual home cooks rather than student peers.